What is Steem (Steem)? All about Steem cryptocurrency

In the context of Web2 being criticized for profiting from user content without fairly sharing value, Steem emerged as one of the first blockchain platforms to bring the concept of "Decentralized Social Media" into reality. The project not only proposes a new value distribution model for content creators but also serves as an important stepping stone for today's SocialFi trend. What makes this project special? Let's explore with Allinstation through the article below!

What is Steem (STEEM)?

Steem is a specialized blockchain serving decentralized social media and content applications. Launched in 2016 by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer, Steem aims to fairly distribute rewards to both content creators and content managers through its native token system: STEEM, Steem Power (SP), and Steem Dollars (SBD).

The most prominent product in the Steem ecosystem is Steemit.com, a social blogging platform that allows users to post, comment, and be rewarded with the network's native tokens.

• Not governed by advertising algorithms.
• Protect viewer privacy.
• Create income for video creators without depending on YouTube.

SteemApps – Catalog of DApps on Steem

SteemApps is an information portal that statistically lists all Decentralized Applications operating on the Steem blockchain, including:

• Steemit, DTube, Utopian.io, Steem Monsters (card game), and many other small DApps.
• Provides information about user numbers, interactions, rewards...

Highlights:

• Helps users discover and connect with the Steem ecosystem intuitively.
• A transparent data source to track community activities.

Steem Monsters

Steem Monsters, now Splinterlands, is a digital card game (NFT Card Game) built on the Steem blockchain.

• Players collect, upgrade, and battle with NFT cards.
• Cards are real assets that can be bought, sold, traded, and earn rewards in STEEM.
• The game operates on a play-to-earn mechanism, where players can both entertain and earn cryptocurrency.

Highlights:

• One of the earliest successful blockchain games (launched in 2018).
• Laid the foundation for the current GameFi model.

Ownership Dispute Event

In February 2020, Justin Sun announced that he had acquired Steemit Inc, the company operating the Steemit platform and owning a large amount of STEEM tokens (about 20% of total supply, called "ninja-mined stake"). This acquisition immediately created a strong wave of protest from the Steem community.

The Steem community reacted by:

• Organizing a soft fork (Fork 0.22.2) to disable voting rights from tokens controlled by Justin Sun, aimed at protecting the blockchain from arbitrary intervention.
• However, Justin Sun collaborated with major exchanges like Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex, using large amounts of STEEM tokens from users (without prior notification) to vote out community Witnesses and replace them with TRON-friendly Witnesses - this was seen as an "on-chain takeover".

In response, on March 20, 2020, the community decided to:

• Hard fork the Steem blockchain and create a new network called Hive.
• Distribute 1:1 HIVE tokens to all STEEM holders, except addresses related to Justin Sun.
• The Hive protocol retained the entire original source code from Steem but declared independent operation, transparency, and community control.

Since then:

• Steem continues to exist, but most of the community, developers, and DApps have moved to Hive.
• Hive is currently operating stably and growing strongly, with many new applications like PeakD, 3Speak, Ecency...

Basic Information about STEEM Token and Tokenomics

Steem Token System

Steem uses different token systems:

• STEEM (STEEM): Basic token, can be bought/sold on exchanges.
• SBD (Steem Dollars): Stablecoin pegged to USD, used for rewards.
• SP (Steem Power): Represents influence, more SP means more valuable votes. Can be converted from STEEM.
• SMT (Smart Media Tokens): For content creators to create their own native tokens.

When users post or comment on the Steemit platform, they are paid with a combination of STEEM, SP, and SBD tokens.

Reward Distribution: Steemit creates new STEEM tokens daily. The newly created tokens are distributed as follows:

• 75% shared among content authors and managers.
• 15% shared among Steem Power holders.
• 10% shared among Miners.

Basic Information about STEEM Token

Basic Information

• Ticker: STEEM
• Blockchain: Steam
• Consensus: DPoS
• Function: Currency
• Total Supply: Not fixed (inflation around 9.5%/year and gradually decreasing)
• Circulating Supply: 513,573,189 STEEM

STEEM Token Distribution

• Content Creator: 75%
• Staker: 15%
• Validator: 10%

Project Team and Investors of Steem

Project Team

Steem was founded in 2016 by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer.

• Larimer is the founder of BitShares, Steem, and created the Steem blockchain.
• Ned Scott was the CEO of Steemit and created SMT.

Note: Dan Larimer left the project at the end of 2017 to focus on EOS. Ned Scott later sold Steemit Inc to Justin Sun in 2020.

Investors

Steem was one of the early blockchain projects not dependent on Venture Capital. The project was launched through early token distribution to the community and reward-based operations. However, after Steemit Inc was acquired by Justin Sun, the platform was seen as directly under the influence of the TRON Foundation.

• Stage 2016-2019: Steem was highly community-driven, without large funds behind it.
• After 2020: Justin Sun & TRON became the official "owners" of Steemit's infrastructure.

Summary

Steem (STEEM) is one of the pioneering blockchains in combining decentralized technology with social media, laying the foundation for the SocialFi concept very early on. With a model that rewards content creators and managers, Steem once had a vibrant community and a strongly developed dApp ecosystem.

However, the ownership-related event with Justin Sun in 2020 created a major divide, leading to the emergence of Hive and diminishing Steem's role in the current Web3 space. Nevertheless, Steem continues to operate as a decentralized content platform, providing valuable lessons about community governance, decentralization, and the value of trust in blockchain.

The article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.